seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: 2012 Six Nations Championship


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Birth of Rob Kearney, Former Rugby Union Player

Robert Kearney, former rugby union player, is born on a dairy farm on March 26, 1986, on the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth. He plays for 15 years for Leinster followed by a six-month stint in Australia, playing for Perth based side Western Force. He also plays over a decade for the Ireland national rugby union team with whom he earns 95 caps and goes on two British & Irish Lions tours in 2009 and 2013. As a youth he also plays rugby union for Clongowes Wood College and Gaelic football for Louth in the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship.

Kearney is the third of five children. He has an older brother, Richard, a younger brother Dave (who plays for Leinster) and a sister, Sara, the youngest of the five children. His elder brother Ross dies at the age of six following an accident in 1988. He is a seventh cousin of former U.S. President Joe Biden.

Like many of his peers, Kearney gets involved in athletics at an early age. The dominant sport in the area is Gaelic football. As a youth, he plays Gaelic for Naomh Muire, and in the Cooley Kickhams underage setup, before graduating to the Cooley senior football team at the age of 17 in 2004 and also Louth at minor level.

Kearney attends Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare for his secondary education. After his Leaving Certificate he moves to University College Dublin (UCD) on a sports scholarship, where he plays for the rugby team. He graduates in April 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. In 2005 he helps the U-20s team win the McCorry Cup, beating Dublin University Football Club (DUFC) in the final. In 2018, he is awarded the UCD Alumni Award in Sport.

Kearney plays for Leinster at both schoolboy and U-19 level before going on to represent them as a senior. He scores a hat-trick of tries on his debut for Leinster in a pre-season friendly win over Parma.

Kearney makes his Celtic League debut for Leinster in 2005 in a 22–20 defeat away to the Ospreys. He makes 32 appearances in the competition, scoring eight tries, with three penalties during a period in September 2006, when usual place kicker, Felipe Contepomi, is injured. He plays in his first Heineken Cup game in a 19–22 defeat against Bath at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) on October 22, 2005. It is the first of ten appearances scoring ten tries in the process. He is part of Leinster’s Heineken Cup winning team in 2009 but misses the 2011 final due to injury. On May 21, 2012, the day after Leinster wins their second straight Heineken Cup, he is announced as the ERC Player of the Year for 2012. During the 2011–12 campaign he starts all nine European matches scoring six tries. He is crowned Leinster player of the year for the 2011–12 season. He confirms his departure from Leinster on September 24, 2020.

In late September 2020, it is confirmed that Kearney has signed a one-year contract with Australian side Western Force. He makes his Force debut in an 11–27 defeat to the Brumbies on February 19, 2021. He announces his retirement from rugby after one season with Western Force in Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Trans-Tasman. Following his retirement, he returns to Louth GAA club Cooley Kickhams where he begins training in August 2021 for the first time since 2005.

Kearney represents Ireland at schoolboy and U-19 level, and tours with Ireland A in the 2006 Churchill Cup. He is first called into the Irish training squad for 2005’s autumn internationals but does not play. He is named in the Irish squad to the 2007 summer tour of Argentina and earns his first cap against Argentina on June 2, 2007, in a 16–0 defeat. During the 2008 Six Nations Championship he scores two tries, one against Scotland and one against England. He is a member of the victorious Ireland team that wins the 2009 Six Nations Championship, Triple Crown and Grand Slam. One of the most famous incidents in his career is a high tackle incident involving Italy‘s Andrea Masi in the first minute of a game. The incident is taken as an indication of the danger posed by Kearney in attack. He misses almost a year – from November 2010 until August 2011 – due to a knee injury that requires surgery.

In the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Kearney is selected but is injured for the first game against the United States. However, he plays in all the other matches which take Ireland through to the quarterfinals, in which they are knocked out by Wales, 22–10. He is selected in the Ireland squad for the 2012 Six Nations Championship and named in the starting team to play Wales in the opening match. He plays in all the other games, which see Ireland finish third in the table. He is also in the first Irish rugby team in 39 years to beat Australia on Australian soil, in the 2018 summer series. He is named in the Ireland squad for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, starting three of Ireland’s five matches and splitting time at fullback with Jordan Larmour.

Kearney is named in the British & Irish Lions squad for the 2009 tour to South Africa. He makes his Lions test debut as a substitute in the 26–21 first test defeat in Durban. Due to an injury to Lee Byrne, he is selected again for the second test in Pretoria. He scores the only try for the Lions in a 28–25 defeat. He then plays in the final test in Johannesburg which the Lions win 28–9. On April 30, 2013, he is named in his second British & Irish Lions squad.

Kearney marries Jess Redden in 2021, and their son is born in 2023.


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Birth of Anthony Foley, Rugby Union Player and Coach

Anthony Gerard Foley, Irish rugby union player and head coach of Munster, is born on October 30, 1973, in Limerick, County Limerick. He is attached to the same squad during his professional playing career. He is a member of the Munster team that wins the 2002–03 Celtic League and is the winning captain during their 2005–06 Heineken Cup success. He plays for Ireland from 1995 until 2005 and captains the squad on three occasions. He is nicknamed “Axel,” after the fictional character Axel Foley of the Beverly Hills Cop film series. His father Brendan Foley and sister Rosie Foley also play rugby for Ireland.

In March 1989, Foley leads St. Munchin’s College to victory in the Munster Schools Junior Cup. He later represents Munster and Ireland Schools on several occasions over two seasons, notably during the 1992 Irish Schools tour of New Zealand. Winning six games out of eight, Ireland narrowly loses the final game to a New Zealand side featuring Jonah Lomu. A controversial Jeff Wilson penalty-goal wins the game in the final minutes.

Foley makes his professional debut for Munster against Swansea in November 1995, a game that is also Munster’s first ever Heineken Cup fixture. He is on the Munster team that loses 8–9 to Northampton Saints in the 2000 Heineken Cup Final, and is again the runner-up when Munster loses 15–9 to Leicester Tigers in the 2002 Heineken Cup Final. He is finally on the winning side when Munster wins the 2002–03 Celtic League.

When Mick Galwey resigns as Munster captain, Foley narrowly loses to Jim Williams in a vote to decide the next captain. When Williams leaves Munster in 2005, Foley becomes the new captain, and in his first season in the position, he leads Munster to victory over Biarritz Olympique in the 2006 Heineken Cup Final. He has played in all but one of Munster’s first 78 Heineken Cup games until a shoulder injury sustained during Munster’s 21–19 victory over Leicester Tigers at Welford Road Stadium in their first game of the 2006–07 Heineken Cup causes him to miss his side’s subsequent victory over CS Bourgoin-Jallieu, as well as back-to-back games against Cardiff in December 2006.

Foley stands down as captain at the beginning of the 2007–08 season, making way for Paul O’Connell. He is dropped for Munster’s final fixtures of the 2007–08 Heineken Cup, and announces his retirement for the end of the season.

Foley makes his debut for Ireland against England in the 1995 Five Nations Championship on January 21, 1995. He scores a try on his debut in an 8-20 defeat. He goes to the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, and plays as a replacement in one pool game against Japan which Ireland wins 50-28. He misses the 1999 Rugby World Cup, but is selected for the 2003 Rugby World Cup, featuring in two of the pool games against Romania and Australia.

Foley captains Ireland three times: in 2001 against Samoa, and in 2002 against Romania and Georgia. His last international is against Wales in the 2005 Six Nations Championship. In total he plays in 62 matches for Ireland and scores 5 tries against England in 1995, Romania in 2001, Fiji in 2002, France in 2004, and Wales in 2004.

In March 2011, it is announced that Foley will take over as Munster forwards coach at the end of the 2011 season. He temporarily replaces Gert Smal as Ireland’s forwards coach during the 2012 Six Nations Championship, after Smal is forced to miss the remainder of the tournament with an eye condition. He signs a contract extension with Munster in May 2013. The following year it is announced that he will succeed Rob Penney as Munster’s head coach, signing a two-year contract that begins on July 1, 2014.

Foley dies in his sleep on October 16, 2016, of an acute pulmonary edema brought on by heart disease while staying at a hotel in the Paris suburb of Suresnes with the Munster squad. The team is preparing to face Racing 92 in its opening game of the 2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup. The match is postponed as a result of his death. President Michael D. Higgins and then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny make tributes to Foley, and the Irish flag flies at half mast at government buildings in Munster.

Foley is brought home to Ireland on Wednesday, October 19, 2016. His funeral takes place on Friday, October 21, 2016 at St. Flannan’s Church in Killaloe, County Clare.

On October 22, 2016, in the first game after Foley’s death, Munster beats Glasgow 38–17 at a sold-out Thomond Park. Tributes are paid to Foley before, during and after the game and the number 8 jersey is retired for the game, with CJ Stander wearing the number 24 for the occasion. Before their historic first ever win against New Zealand at Soldier Field, Chicago, on November 5, 2016, the senior Irish men’s team pays tribute to Foley by forming a figure of 8, led by Munster’s CJ Stander, Simon Zebo, Conor Murray and Donnacha Ryan, to face the All Blacks Haka. Ahead of a game against Munster on November 11, 2016, the Māori All Blacks team pays tribute to Foley by placing a jersey with his initials on the halfway line before performing a Haka. Māori captain Ash Dixon then presents the jersey to Foley’s sons. Munster goes on to win the historic game 27–14. On January 7, 2017, further tributes are paid to Foley when the rescheduled Round 1 fixture between Racing 92 and Munster takes place.

To honour Foley’s memory and contribution to European rugby, the European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) announces that the 2016–17 European Player of the Year would receive the Anthony Foley Memorial Trophy. The trophy is commissioned with the agreement of the Foley family and Munster Rugby and it is envisaged that it will be presented to all future European Player of the Year winners.